Taxonomy

Hitherto treated as conspecific with E. aurantiicollis. No close relatives apart from E. aurantiicollis, and these two are the only lowland members of genus. A specimen from upper R Napo (Ecuador) represents a hybrid between nominate race of present species and race orientalis of E. bourcierii. Form from S Colombia and N Peru described as granadensis considered synonymous with nominate, but possibly a valid race. Two subspecies currently recognized.

Bibliography

Public comments

On IBC , it would seem there are a couple of examples of the nigriceps ssp ( i.e with black/maroon crown) but their locations , Sani Lodge and another lodge near Archidona in Ecuador, don't tally with the distribution cited in HBW for this ssp ( NE Peru to extreme NW Brazil)

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Scientific classification

Class: Aves

Order: Piciformes

Family: Capitonidae

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Traditionally, all barbets were lumped into a single family under this name. In recent decades, increasing weight of evidence #R#R#R#R indicates: separate families should be recognized for species from America (Capitonidae), Asia (Megalaimidae) and Africa (Lybiidae); American barbets further divisible by recognition of aberrant family Semnornithidae; and American barbets are closer to toucans than to Old World barbets.